Just trying to track down what I assume is my missing birthday present from my father (all the way from Ireland). I wasn't in when they tried to deliver it, and now we're going through the familiar rigmarole of trying to phone the delivery office, no answer, trying again, and yet again, leave it ringing for ages, still no answer, trying the online redelivery, asking for it to be sent to the nearest post office, going into post office, not there, emailing them again, being told it is there, going back to post office, being told it's not there, emailing them again... And the 'Sorry you were out card' doesn't have the attempted time of delivery, or the reason it couldn't be delivered, which they want to know. In Bristol we also get a recorded/ special delivery letter virtually every day which just arrives straight through our letter box without anyone asking for a signature.
I don't like complaining about such things because it's not always the person who deserves the blame who gets it. On the one occasion I did get an answer at the delivery office I was told they couldn't answer the phones because they're under-staffed. But I'm getting a bit fed up with it. Anyone else have the same problems?
15 comments:
so it crosses the stormy Irish Sea, over countless fields and towns, villages and hamlets...and get's lost in Bristol. Typical.
I couldn't stand that, would need to know what the present was. Down to the Post office in the dressing gown, only thing for it.
ha! no comment, just a prediction of comments to follow - like - 'same problems? since 1997' - or - 'under-staffed? no wonder, all the money is going on summits and MPs expenses' - how about - 'ZanuLabour should be concentrating on getting these things sorted out instead of wasting money on banning things and invading our privacy'.
OK for starters? or was I being too gentle.
If that's your bid to be shortlisted for the new award timbone you will have to do a lot better.
Should perhaps make clear this isn't just about Bristol. London (Southwark) is much worse.
I'm sensing a sequel to "a post about the post"
Well I suppose it could be seen as an argument for modernisation. But that's not why I blogged on it - I'm just fed up!
I had the same problems the other week when I was expecting a parcel from Blackburn. Took the day off work when it was supposed to arrive and spent the entire day in my flat, not doing anything too noisy just in case I didn't hear the buzzer. Nobody came round. When I left for work the next day there was a "We missed you" card stuck behind the array of buzzers down at the front. I had to ring again and take another day off of work. I don't drive and don't know Bristol well enough yet, but the place I was supposed to pick it up from was in the BS34 postcode, and as I live in the BS1 postcode I imagined that it was quite a way away.
2 days of annual leave gone for 30 seconds of interaction with a delivery bloke.
Am always on hand to offer helpful advice: try moving to a pleasant middle-class area, preferably a village with astronomical house prices. The postman can then safely leave your parcels in the porch.
Of course, the inherent paradox is that such places tend not to have Labour MPs. Your party’s natural constituencies are litter-strewn crime-ridden overcrowded ASBO slums full of Stella-belching thieving hooded yobs. In practice, therefore, Labour MPs never really have the option of safely leaving parcels out.
I’m afraid it all comes down to your fundamentally tragic ideological choice. Postal disruption is merely the inevitable consequence.
To sum it up, it's readily accessible birthday presents or the Labour Party. You cannot have both.
I hope this impartial analysis has been useful to you.
I've had similar numerous time. Post going missing, first class letters arriving two weeks after they were posted, a "sorry we missed you" card appearing when I was home all day, no post for 4 days then it all arriving at the same time, etc etc.
Since the botched deregulation of the postal service, Royal Mail are left with all the unprofitable bits so cut corners on staff numbers and at the same time are being hamstrung by the unions who seem hell bent on forcing the company into bankruptcy.
I've had that too - the card saying you weren't in when you haven't even dared put the hairdryer on for five mins in case you missed them. Infuriating!
As for the Tories - surely the housekeeper is always there to receive any post?
By pure coincidence I've got the Parliament channel on, and am watching the Postal Services Bill debate in the Lords - for the third time. I will be able to recite it in my sleep soon.
I've had this problem more times than I can remember ordering things online...then to be told 'it's easier to collect it from our sorting office than to have it redelivered' to which I replied: 'no it isn't - I might as well just have gone down the shops!'
recess or r'cess seriously infringes upon my enjoyment of BBC parliament too. Think I could recite the pmqs of April 1st. oh and Nick Clegg's "briefing", funniest half hour on TV, see how he tries to style out his dependance on the autocue-classic.
I'm quite keen on the idea of local post offices (not sorting offices) automatically being the place where parcels are kept for collection, if people so choose, and then they'd get an email or card to say it's there. People could choose whether they wanted a post office near home or near work.
I'm sure more people would buy things off the internet if there wasn't the possibility of having to endure all this hassle.
Of course this might mean post offices having to stay open after hours. But it would bring extra customers in who might then buy other stuff.
Just remembered something which happened to me 18 months ago. Another example of Royal Mail efficiency.
I moved house and filled in the redelivery form. It specifically said that I had to pay for each new set of initials if there was more than one person with the same second name. The person moving from the house was my daughter with the same second name but different initials. Fine? no. All my post was being delivered to my daughter at her new address.
Nobody needs housekeepers, it's the absence of a thieving mindset that makes the difference.
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